The CPU is a Xeon E5, which per the above is downclocked to 1200RPM....

Basically this seems strange, though I know the kernel/BIOS should adjust the fans speeds automatically but for such large fans they are making quite a bit of noise while another machine running FreeBSD also in a SuperMicro chassis is almost dead silent.....

The chassis is basically a 4U industrial SuperMicro chassis with very large PWM fans (80mm I think?).

I don' think that the fans need to run at 3000RPM, though having done lots of reading I haven't found anywhere to adjust them with... SENSORSD is read-only and can't make adjustments.

Is there such a feature/port that could do this or do I simply have to live with the noise?

There is, generally, no manual way to control fan speeds. However, there are a variety of different fan management hardware components that you might have, and therefore posting a dmesg(8) may be of value. (Posting one is almost always of value, whenever asking for assistance or advice.)

Try the command below to see a list of possible hardware drivers.

$apropos fan | grep 4

Last edited by jggimi; 27th March 2014 at 11:39 PM.
Reason: added link to man page

Going back up the tree, this is interconnected via pci0, and is apparently using the pcixpm(4) driver to connect to the Intel SB600.

Looking through the CVS repository:

There have been no apparent changes to lm driver modules since your October 15 kernel build, though I may have missed something when doing a quick search just now.

There were no changes to any underlying i2c modules (sys/dev/i2c/*) during this same time period.

sys/dev/pci/piixpm.c was last updated October 1, which was prior to your kernel build.

Recommendation:

Try a recent snapshot; my quick search may have missed a patch which affects your fan control path. (Plus, a recent snapshot is recommended prior to submitting any problem report.) Refer to the Following -current FAQ for awareness of structural changes since October. sysmerge(8) will automate most of these.

If your problem remains unresolved, I recommend that you submit an informal problem report to misc@, or a formal problem report to bugs@.

I should point out that step 8 (package update) and step 9 (package build if necessary) are entirely optional, as the upgrade script will not remove any dependent libraries.

And pkg_add(1) will not remove any third party libraries that an installed package might depend upon, either. If there are two versions of a third party library needed, the older library metadata gets moved into a .lib* structure under /var/db/pkg. Removal of these older versions is (mostly) automatic when they are no longer needed.

Manually complete any changes not implemented by sysmerge, such as removal of old files.

The first time I ran sysmerge I was ignorant regarding scrolling through the options. Do not use the enter key to scroll through the text. Use the space bar to arrive at the bottom of the proposed file changes and then select the option to replace, ignore or merge the changes.

Thanks a lot for the above info.... I'm just going through the update process now.

It was actually quite painless though I had to restart the upgrade a few times but now all seems ok.

The only issue am having at present is rebuilding Ports....

I took the FreeBSD approach of installing everything via the ports tree instead of using pkg_add. I am not sure if there is a tool such as "portmaster" or "portupgrade" to rebuild all the installed ports?

Also another confusing thing is, out of the ports should I be building Stable or Snapshot? As my version of OpenBSD is now latest snapshot; does the Port version refer to that or is it a snapshot for the actual port itself so infact I should build Stable?

...I took the FreeBSD approach of installing everything via the ports tree instead of using pkg_add.

That isn't recommended for this operating system, because with OpenBSD there is no operational difference between a package you install from your nearby mirror and a port you build yourself. Your ports build creates the same package. With this OS, you should need to build a port only when a package is unavailable (e.g., an unpackaged $FLAVOR, or licensing, etc.), or when an available snapshot package is out of sync for a -current system and will not install.

You can provide a complete list of installed packages to dpb(1) in pkgpath(7) format, which can be obtained from pkg_info(1). Use the -P option with pkg_info, and the -I option with dpb.

Quote:

...should I be building Stable or Snapshot?

-current. You can install "snapshot" packages which are -current, available from most mirrors. But these will never be exactly in sync with the kernel and userland, as -current is a constantly moving target. They will usually install/update without problems, but you must be prepared to manually build a few ports now and again.

Quote:

As my version of OpenBSD is now latest snapshot; does the Port version refer to that or is it a snapshot for the actual port itself so infact I should build Stable?

If you're using a snapshot, you are on -current. You should keep your ports tree -current, not -release or -stable. -stable is a patch branch, and is about 8 or 9 months behind -current at the moment.

Last edited by jggimi; 3rd April 2014 at 11:54 PM.
Reason: typo, clarity.

15.2.2 - Making things easy: PKG_PATH
You can make things really easy by using the PKG_PATH environment variable. Just point it to your favorite location, and pkg_add(1) will automatically look there for any package you specify, and also fetch and install the necessary dependencies of this package automatically.
A list of possible locations to fetch packages from is given in the following section.
Example 1: fetching from your CDROM, assuming you mounted it on /mnt/cdrom
$ export PKG_PATH=/mnt/cdrom/5.4/packages/`machine -a`/
Example 2: fetching from a nearby FTP mirror
$ export PKG_PATH=ftp://your.ftp.mirror/pub/OpenBSD/5.4/packages/`machine -a`/
It's usually a good idea to add a line similar to the above examples to your ~/.profile. As with the classic PATH variable, you can specify multiple locations, separated by colons. Prior to OpenBSD 4.4, every path in the PKG_PATH variable MUST end in a slash (/). That way, pkg_add(1) can split the path correctly even if it holds URL schemes containing colons. If the first entry in PKG_PATH fails, the next one will be tried, and so on, until the package is found. If all entries fail, an error is produced.
Notice the use of machine(1) in the above command lines. This automatically substitutes your installed OpenBSD "application architecture", which is usually, but not always, your platform name. Of course, if you are using snapshots, you will replace "5.4" with "snapshots".

which I totally understand.... only issue is how to make that permanent?

OpenBSD uses the Korn shell if I'm not wrong so would putting the: "export PKG_PATH" into the .cshrc file work? Or am I mixing up with .bashrc style of things?

If you happened to be using cvs(1) when you were using -release or -stable ports, if you overlayed your working /usr/ports directory tree rather than delete/recreate you may still have a -release or -stable ports tree. You can check any of the CVS directories in the tree to see if has a Tag file -- if so, the tree is not -current. To clear these tags, just run cvs update with the -A option, after which the tree will be -current.

Quote:

Erm.... you are being extremely helpful and nice; and to someone like myself that means a lot